Red-backed Shrike - Middleton Moor

 I dashed back up to Middleton on Saturday evening when the news broke, late afternoon, of a male Red-backed Shrike seen in front of the hide.

Red-backed Shrike - male

Not ideal timing for me as I'd fallen in the garden just before the news came out, banging my nose, but I felt a lot better after seeing the shrike! 

It was the first record for Middleton but there was no sign of it the following day but a male turned up at Hartington Meadows on Sunday morning which is just 14km to the SW so it seems likely it was the same bird. The Hartington bird disappeared late morning so that could be it for a while.

The Temminck's Stint was still at Middleton on Saturday but hasn't been seen since.

Red-backed Shrike - Bakewell

Belated news of a juvenile Red-backed Shrike photographed (below) in a Bakewell Garden on 13th September confirms that migrant birds can, and do, turn up in unlikely locations! The bird was looked for in the following days but wasn't seen again.

Red-backed Shrike - juvenile

A former breeding bird in the distant past with records from Matlock and Cromford with the last nest reported from Cromford in 1942. 

Since then there was one recorded at Lumsdale in July  in 1951, Masson Hill in August 1960 and Taddington in October 1976 so it could be a while before the next record.